Cypress dad brings home his abducted son

John Cotton Sr., with his son, John Cotton, Jr., in their Cypress home on Thursday. Cotton spent thousands of dollars and four years of his life trying to get his son back after his ex-wife absconded to her native Zambia with the then 4-year-old boy. This week Dad finally won a judgment from a court in the Netherlands -- where his son was visiting his uncle -- a European soccer star. Dad and son returned home to Orange County early Thursday morning. JEFF GRITCHEN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Zambia mom faces felony charge

Silvia Chilombo Mulenga, 34, is charged in an Orange County arrest warrant with one felony count of child abduction. In December 2009, Mulenga is accused of abducting her son and traveling with him to her native Zambia, despite a court order prohibiting her from taking the boy out of the country. If located, arrested and convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison, the Orange County District Attorney's Office said. But she remains a fugitive, believed to be residing in Zambia, prosecutors said.

CYPRESS – A Cypress man spent thousands of dollars and four years of his life fighting legal battles in three countries to get back his son after his former wife violated an Orange County court order and absconded with their 4-year-old to her native Zambia.

On Wednesday, after Orange County authorities dispatched certified copies of his parental rights court documents to a judge in the Netherlands, John Lorenza Cotton Sr. heard the news he’d been waiting for since 2009: Dutch authorities recognized his court-sanctioned rights to full custody of John Cotton Jr., now 8.

The father raced to the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands to complete an expedited passport for his son and boarded the first plane out of Amsterdam.

He returned to Orange County a happy man early Thursday morning – with his son.

“I am elated,” Cotton said. “I knew this day would come. I started dreaming that my son would be here with me in 2011, and now he is.

“I am so happy this is finally over,” he said.

John Cotton’s desperate attempt to reunite with his only child was hampered by the fact that Zambia is not a signatory of the 1980 Hague Convention that requires countries to return abducted children to parents in other countries with valid court orders.

But Cotton said he caught a break in July when Cypress police detective Greg Faessel learned that his son had traveled with his maternal grandmother from Zambia to visit his uncle, European soccer star Jacob Mulenga, in the Netherlands. Jacob Mulenga is striker for the Utrecht soccer club and a member of the Zambian national team.

The Netherlands is a signatory of the Hague Convention, said Orange County Deputy District Attorney Jim Bacin, who heads his office’s child-abduction unit.

With support from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the Cypress Police Department, the FBI and the U.S. departments of Justice and State, Cotton persuaded Dutch authorities to put a hold on his son’s Zambian passport while he traveled to the Netherlands.

Cotton said he expected Dutch authorities to abide by the Orange County court order and allow him to take his son home immediately in July. But by the time he landed in Amsterdam, Cotton said, his former wife’s family had hired lawyers who claimed Cotton had been an unfit and abusive father.

After three months of court hearings, a Dutch judge Wednesday found no evidence of wrongdoing on Cotton’s part, that John Jr. was better off with his father in the United States and that John Cotton Sr. had proper legal custody.

They gave him back his son.

He said he rushed out of the country immediately, worried about last-ditch efforts by his former wife’s family’s lawyers to stall their departure with appeals. They got back into Orange County after midnight Wednesday.

Cotton said he and John Jr. are bonding after having been separated for most of the past four years, during which time the Mulenga family allowed him little communication with the boy.

But he said that on the plane trip home Wednesday night, his son called him “Dad” for the first time since he was taken to Zambia in 2009. “It meant a lot to me,” Cotton said.

For now, Cotton said, his son would prefer to be with his mother in Zambia.

“It will take a little time before he feels at home here,” Cotton said. “But we’re working on it. We’re getting along great.”

John Cotton Sr., with his son, John Cotton, Jr., in their Cypress home on Thursday. Cotton spent thousands of dollars and four years of his life trying to get his son back after his ex-wife absconded to her native Zambia with the then 4-year-old boy. This week Dad finally won a judgment from a court in the Netherlands -- where his son was visiting his uncle -- a European soccer star. Dad and son returned home to Orange County early Thursday morning. JEFF GRITCHEN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
John Cotton, Jr., before he was abducted. COURTESY OF JOHN COTTON, SR.
John Cotton Sr., with his son, John Cotton, Jr., before he was abducted. COURTESY OF JOHN COTTON, SR.
John Cotton Sr., with his son, John Cotton, Jr., in their Cypress home on Thursday. JEFF GRITCHEN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
John Cotton Sr., with his son, John Cotton, Jr., before he was abducted. COURTESY OF JOHN COTTON, SR.
John Cotton Sr., with his son, John Cotton, Jr., in their Cypress home on Thursday. Cotton spent thousands of dollars and four years of his life trying to get his son back after his ex-wife absconded to her native Zambia with the then 4-year-old boy. This week Dad finally won a judgment from a court in the Netherlands -- where his son was visiting his uncle -- a European soccer star. Dad and son returned home to Orange County early Thursday morning. JEFF GRITCHEN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
John Cotton Sr., with his son, John Cotton, Jr., in their Cypress home on Thursday. Cotton spent thousands of dollars and four years of his life trying to get his son back after his ex-wife absconded to her native Zambia with the then 4-year-old boy. This week Dad finally won a judgment from a court in the Netherlands -- where his son was visiting his uncle -- a European soccer star. Dad and son returned home to Orange County early Thursday morning. JEFF GRITCHEN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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